University of Texas System Combines Support for Teaching and Commercialization Excellence with $15 Million Initiative

The University of Texas System Board of Regents recently approved $15 million in funding for three programs that will support innovation and extraordinary effort among its faculty. Two of these programs will make awards for teaching excellence, one for faculty at the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) and the other for teaching at the system’s other eight universities. The third program will support a Center for Technology Commercialization at UT Austin to accelerate technology transfer and new venture creation. Each of these programs will receive $1 million annually for the next five years for awards and operations.

The two awards programs will recognize faculty for outstanding contributions to undergraduate education and will serve as an incentive compensation program to improve instruction. These one-time awards will range from $15,000 to $30,000. The Board plans to recognize at least 30 faculty members each year.

The UT Austin Center for Technology Commercialization will help coordinate the activities of the existing Office of Technology Commercialization and the Austin Technology Incubator. Specialists will be available to advise faculty and researchers on the commercialization process and on the resources available for new technology ventures. The center is intended to increase the number of successful start-up companies and shorten the time to market for university discoveries.

The new center’s funding comes just a year after the UT System’s Office of Research and Technology Transfer introduced a grant program for commercialization projects. Last December the office launched the $2 million Texas Ignition Program (TIP), to serve as a complement to the state’s Emerging Technology Fund and the Texas Enterprise Fund. TIP offers grants of up to $50,000 for the creation of ventures based on university technology and may be used for personnel, equipment, supplies, business plans, and, in some cases, faculty support and patent costs. The third round of awards was made earlier this month and approximately $880,000 remains in the fund.

In February, Texas Gov. Rick Perry stepped up his calls for the University of Texas system to follow the lead of the Texas A&M system and make commercialization of research part of the consideration in tenure decisions. Texas A&M has included the commercialization of faculty research in tenure decision-making since 2006, when the Board of Regents voted unanimously for the change. The University of Texas system has not yet followed suit.

Read the latest announcement from the University of Texas Board of Regents at: http://www.utsystem.edu/news/2008/UTS-RegentsAwards-11-13-08.html.

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